


“Acharé Alstone, Tenth Handmaiden in the First Class for Padmé Amidala”

by Polgarawolf



Series: Star Wars: You Became to Me [32]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F, F/M, Handmaidens, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Prisoner of War, Sacrificial ethics, War, War Crimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-02
Updated: 2012-09-02
Packaged: 2017-11-13 12:08:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/503395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polgarawolf/pseuds/Polgarawolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is fifteen random but chronological moments from the life of Acharé Alstone, who is, quite literally, the tenth handmaiden in the first training class of potential handmaidens chosen from among a large pool of applicants for the job for the newly elected Nabooian Queen Padmé Amidala. There is an actual story here – one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together – but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )</p>
            </blockquote>





	“Acharé Alstone, Tenth Handmaiden in the First Class for Padmé Amidala”

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Acharé Alstone’s life, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU **Star Wars** series **_You Became to Me_**. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask!
> 
>  **Author’s Notes: 1.)** Again, this is compatible with my SW AU series **_You Became to Me_** , including my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Acharé Alstone’s eyes. **2.)** Although this is technically modeled on the prompt sets I've seen on the LJ, I made up the prompts here myself and so there's no challenge associated with this prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Acharé. **3.)** Readers might want to consider the fact that Acharé, like a lot of native Nabooians, is fairly strong in the Force, but that, unlike most Nabooians, she’s received more than a little training in controlling that sensitivity to the Force, having grown up as a ward/acolyte of the Lady’s Temple in Theed. **4.)** Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for original characters like Acharé should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity’s sake, Tyché Norick’s mother, Glynisa Norick should be pictured as Glynis Davies, and the Temple Healer who adopts her, Rashmia Rystagi, should be pictured as Rashmi Rustagi. Please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! **5.)** Handmaidens often tend to pair off, as is the case here, with Acharé Alstone and Tyché Norick, a fellow handmaiden from the same training class (hence, the relationship label for original female characters and the underage warning). **6.)** Speaking of pairings, I've labeled this to indicate Padmé Amidala's love for Obi-Wan, because, even though it may not be specifically mentioned in this character study piece, handmaid(en)s know so much about their sworn Lady that readers can be certain that Acharé, like all of Amidala's other handmaid(en)s who knew him (or knew of him), would have surely known about their Lady's love and high regard for Obi-Wan, just as they would have known about how much Amidala and Sabé love one another! **7.)** Readers should please keep in mind that words that appear Gaelic in nature or else modelled on Gaelic terms are meant as place-holders for non-Basic words (in this case, Nabooian). If anything doesn't make sense in context, please just ask, and I'll send an English approximation for the word/term!
> 
>  **Story Notes:** **1.)** Since this is part of a larger on-going AU series that in some respects fairly closely mirrors or follows events of canon (up to a certain point, anyway), readers should please keep in mind that certain characters and events from the prequel movies/novelizations of the films and even events/places/people referenced in the EU or Expanded Universe may be mentioned or alluded to in this story. If anyone has any questions about whether someone or something is AU, canon, or EU canon, please feel free to ask! **2.)** Readers should probably be aware that I am roughly estimating (guestimating might be a better word) the original publication date for most of the character study pieces in the **_You Became to Me_** series (and indeed most of my stories, especially the ones written over a long period of time), based on when I roughed out notes for them in the story notebooks I carry everywhere with me and when I can recall having worked on certain groups of characters. The year is going to be accurate, but the month might be off and the day will almost certainly be randomly chosen, since the online account I had originally posted many of these stories to no longer exists. I tend to go back and edit things that are in series whenever I get the time or a new idea causes me to have to make room for something else plot-wise, and odds are good that a story could have been edited for typos as recently as the day of its posting here, but the original version will likely be much older and fairly close to the publication date that I attach to it, if anyone's curious!

**“Acharé Alstone, Tenth Handmaiden in the First Class for Padmé Amidala”**

 

 **01.) Special:** Unlike most of the other wards of the Lady’s Temple, she has living family outside of the main Temple of Asherah in Theed – when her mother was carrying her, she was beset with visions of Acharé growing and training within the Lady’s Temple, and, though it broke her heart to do so, in the end, she acquiesced to the Lady’s will and brought her to the Temple, insisting on a meeting with the _dævítru eisharti searbhânuasal_ herself so that she can explain why she is willing to give Acharé up to the Temple and explain about the kind of training that she saw her daughter receiving in the Temple, in her visions, and stress how vitally important it feels to her that Acharé not only grow up within the Temple but that she receive exactly that kind of training, too, telling the _dævítru eisharti searbhânuasal_ all about her visions and about the sensations that accompanied those visions until finally an agreement is struck and Acharé is taken on a a special ward of the Temple, to be trained exclusively in specialized forms of martial arts, gymnastics, and dance – and, though the sworn _searbhânuasal_ of the Lady’s Temple never try to keep the fact that she does, indeed, have living relatives from her, they also never try to keep from her the reasons why she became a ward of the Temple in the first place, and so she’s never really all that curious about her family or concerned about the possibility of going back to that family and growing up with them instead of within the Temple, since she feels as though she has a purpose and a duty and a destiny here, and, to be honest, she much prefers the feeling of usefulness and resolve and resolution that gives her (the sensation that here she is special, she is needed and helpful and truly _belongs_ ) to any mere vague musings or idle daydreams about things that might have once been or could possibly still be.

 **02.) Dance:** Everything is a dance, really, no matter what anyone else says – gymnastics, self-defense, offense, _everything_ – and, though the other young wards of the Temple might very well look at her askance or even eventually grow to distrust and to fear her, for her talents, her special training, her sheer difference ( _specialness_ ), she will, ’til the day she dies, glory in the dance, in her ability to dance, in the beauty and the sweep and the power of dance, and even, if necessary, defend her right to dance, to learn how to continue to practice and perfect her arts and her dances, with all the breath and power and ability she can possibly marshal, Lady will it be so!

 **03.) Pride:** The first time she hears whispers of fanaticism, of obsession, her first impulse is to laugh (honestly! Who doesn’t truly desire to be good at what they do, to be the very best that they possibly can and to shine and _shine_ until finally they outshine all others and so earn the acknowledgment and praise that their talents deserve? Whoever tries to claim that they have no such desire for recognition is surely a liar!); one of her Uriashian _enka-umu_ sees her smirk, though, and is swift to remind her of the dangers of overconfidence, the pitfalls of pride, and, most importantly, and potentially fatal amount of attention that can be taken up by such a little distraction as menial gossip.

 **04.) One:** Tyché Norick is the one, whether she knows it yet or not – she has meditated; she has given herself over to the Lady and Her will (though the Lady’s will comes to her more simply as very strong _feelings_ , rather than actual visions or glimpses of things to come or events that might or might not yet be); she has carefully observed (scrutinized) each and every possibility within the Temple, in an attempt, to clarify and solidify her grasp of the Lady’s will; and she is as sure of this one thing as she has ever been of anything else in her life: Tyché Norick is the one for her, the one who will complete her, the one she will spend her life beside and spill blood in defense of, if necessary, and even, if she has to, give of her own heart’s blood, in defense of, the helpmeet and partner and kindred spirit and best beloved, whose love and high regard and trust and fidelity she will do everything within her power and more ( _gladly_ more!) in order to win and keep – and that knowledge is a comfort to her, when her trainers are harder than perhaps is necessary and her steps want to falter from exhaustion and the whispers of some of the other wards of the Temple are so loud that she is tempted to quail or perhaps even to think that perhaps she is not so talented (so _special_ ) a dancer as she has always thought . . . 

**05.) Vision:** Everyone in the Temple knows about Tyché’s vision (her _prophecy_ ) almost as soon as she has made it, and, worried about the amount of attention that is increasingly being brought to bear against her beloved because of it, Acharé immediately starts to put one of her oldest (and most thoroughly polished) contingency plans in motion, carefully and politely approaching one of her main trainers with the possibility that perhaps the danger that Tyché has foreseen is at the root of Acharé’s own mother’s visions and the real reason why she’s needed so much specialized training, and then simply sitting back and patiently waiting for the woman to draw the proper conclusions . . . and to bring them to the attention others, until finally even the _dævítru eisharti searbhânuasal_ has heard of them and come to the (correct!) conclusion that it is finally time to bring Tyché and Acharé together as partners.

 **06.) Trust:** Tyché doesn’t really seem to know what to make of her or even what she should be doing with someone like Acharé suddenly right there, shadowing her every move; that’s alright, though: Acharé knows how things are going to be for them, eventually, and she also knows how to be patient and how to make herself useful, so really, it’s just going to be a matter of time (and, perhaps, of timing, if Tyché turns out to be as entirely clueless as she seems) and of staying close enough and being useful enough to prove herself fully worthy of Tyché’s trust and admiration and respect and affection, and that certainly shouldn’t be anything approaching a hardship! 

**07.) Worry:** In truth, Sabé Dahn (who loves so very much and so passionately, with such totality of purpose and selflessness of spirit, that she is willing even to sacrifice her own happiness and best beloved’s physical affection and love for the hope of a bit more surety of safety for that beloved) impresses Acharé quite a bit more than Padmé Naberrie does; yet, Tyché specifically said that Padmé Naberrie has got to be Queen, if Naboo is to be saved from destruction, and, realistically speaking, that will necessarily also place Sabé Dahn (who is of course to be _aónes dævítru eisharti_ or first attendant of the divine-elect upon the Lady, the Queen or _céauntaónîs dævítru eisharti_ , and so, as the Queen’s decoy, will, therefore, necessarily as times be acting as Queen, herself) in a potentially quite decisive position of power, and, anyway, the more she finds out about the way that Sabé and Padmé operate, the clearer it becomes that Amidala truly is a composite of both women, to such an extent that Amidala would not and could not exist, as such, without both Sabé and Padmé working to create her, so she decides that she doesn’t really need to worry about it . . . much, anyway. 

**08.) Patience:** Her patience with Tyché pays off eventually, of course, and in spades, too, and, if it didn’t give her such an unpleasant sensation of helpless fury and abject sorrow and squirming, gut-churning (almost shameful or ashamed) guilt, she would be sorely tempted to think of herself and Tyché as a far less tragic and much more successful version of Sabé and Padmé, they fit together and compliment and complete one another and work together just so wondrously well. 

**09.) Idea:** Truthfully, sometimes she honestly just doesn’t understand Padmé and her strange flashes of squeamishness and so-called moral outrage, especially when it comes to things that would let the handmaidens more effectively do their job: after all, if the idea is supposed to be that the handmaidens are all meant to look enough alike that, when present all in a mass, in their seemingly identical (but in truth carefully, individually tailored to present a figure and form as close as possible to the profile of either Padmé Naberrie or else the mean average of Padmé Naberrie and all of the other handmaidens when taken together) uniforms, around their lavishly costumed Queen, no one will really be able to tell one handmaiden from another or even to tell if “Queen Amidala” is actually the girl who was elected Queen of Naboo, then, logically speaking, shouldn’t they be allowed ( _encouraged_ , even!) to take steps (in addition to the most basic of cosmetic measures) to see to it that they all truly do resemble one another and Padmé Naberrie just as much as is humanly possible, even if that might call for a little harmless cosmetic surgery on ears, noses, and whatever else might help to fully cement that illusion of overall sameness?

 **10.) Wrong:** It really is more than a little infuriating that everyone seems to know that something bad is going to happen and yet the only people who seem to be doing anything to prepare are the handmaidens willing to take the looming threat seriously, just as it is endlessly frustrating that, even though everybody in the blasted program seems to be in agreement as to the fact that there is simply something _wrong_ with at least four of the girls who were accepted into the program (by that idiot Panaka, who, quite frankly, seems to be doing entirely too much of his thinking with the wrong blasted head!), no one is able to do anything about it because (supposedly!) it would be unfair and unjust to act before proof of truly malicious intent is made manifest (even though, at this rate, by the time they have “proof” of evil intent, there are surely going to be bodies on the ground and most if not all of them are going to be innocents!), and the tension headache it gives her is so consistent and so bad that frankly it’s almost a relief when the storm finally breaks and the Trade Federation makes its move by dropping armies of battle droids all over Naboo.

 **11.) Nonsense:** There are wrong moves (wobbly missteps, as it were) and then there are just flat-out idiotically _stupid_ moves (fighting uphill, against current, painfully off time with the music and flat-out flying in the face of all the other dancers in play), and, frankly, this splitting up nonsense with the Queen and a few of her most trusted handmaidens fleeing with the Jedi while the rest of them try to get to Princess Ellie (and, hopefully, as many of the magistrates and other government officials as possible) and run to ground with her (and as many others as possible), safely, so they can start some kind of grassroots resistance movement and soften things up here some so that, when the Queen returns with help from the Senate, they’ll be able to retake the planet with as little life lost as is possible is just . . . Lady bless and protect them all, it’s not just nonsense, it’s blasted well tantamount to _suicide_ , is what it is!

 **12.) Farce:** She _hates_ this occupation with every fiber of her being, though, to be honest, it’s at least as much (and probably more) for the anguish and suffering it’s bringing her beloved as it is for the pain and hardship that it’s bringing to the people of Naboo, and, on the day when they are either no longer able to keep up this ridiculous farce of cooperation (of _collaboration_ ) with those evil, traitorous, murderous, insane bitches or no longer required to try to work at helping from within this treasonous nest of poisonous snakes, she’ll gladly put a blade or a blaster or a boot to the neck of Lietté Gaillen and Roché Jodelle, Essé Seltrin and Rosé Ganesa, and every other two-timing, deceiving, betraying _streppoch_ who’s made the mistake of coming to her attention!

 **13.) Swap:** It’s easier, in some ways, to be of actual use, when it comes to the two really crazy ones (Essé and Rosé), because unfortunately, with the so-called Ladies of Pain, there’s generally so much deliberation and staging and planning that goes into their atrocities (even if, in the end, it’s little more than myth-making for their own sense of grandiosity, to add to the level of fear) that nothing can be done to change or alter or ameliorate either the amount of damage or the identities of the ones being hurt (being murdered by slow and painful and unnecessarily messy increments, since Lietté has such a taste, now, for blood) until after the fact (when it’s usually already far too late to really even try to do much of anything except clean up the mess and pray to the Lady that the occupation will end soon and proper restitution can then swiftly be gained for all of those poor wretched souls who have suffered and died, in the meantime), whereas with Essé and Rosé, well, the only requirements, generally, are for bodies nubile, lithe, young, and unwilling, in which case it becomes both entirely possible and, quite often, all too easy to swap out the innocent victims culled from the detention/rehabilitation camps with the dirty _streppoch_ helping to run the camps (who let themselves be turned for money and power) or the absolute bastards who’ve taken advantage of the chaos and confusion bred by the invasion to commit crimes and atrocities of their own.

 **14.) Close:** Tyché has that blasted ninety thousand parsecs deep look (the one she gets whenever she’s surrendered herself to the Lady’s will so fully and has fallen down so deep into the currents of the _criosanna teinedíait_ that there’s very little of her actually left behind that billions of miles deep gaze, to try to pilot her body), there’s at least a squad and a half of furious, nervous, itchy-fingered fighters all pointing blasters at them, and no one is bloody _listening_ to her, no one is really listening at _all_ , and she’s very, _very_ close to making a decision that she knows she’s going to end up going to her death regretting, in all likelihood (because even if these idiots weren’t here and didn’t really know what was actually going on, in Theed Palace, and even if they are letting fear rule them and aren’t listening worth spit, they still don’t deserve to die here), when all of a sudden this man-child in Jedi robes, a tear-streaked pale face shining like star, and enough power leaking out around the edges of his personal shields to probably crack a world like Naboo in half like a bloody egg being broken open on a counter edge for breakfast is just _there_ , gliding into the room, placing himself squarely between them and the half enraged, half terrified fighters, quietly ordering them, “Hold,” and saving the whole lot of them from making a horrible decision. 

**15.) Sense:** Standing next to Obi-Wan Kenobi is like standing next to a rising sun and not being entirely sure if one should simply take advantage of the propinquity to bask in the warm and life-giving rays of light (of energy, of concentrated _Light_ ) or break and run for cover and pray to get to safe distance before being burnt away entirely to ash just from sheer proximity to so much unrestrained, amassed power, and, while a part of her can certainly understand both Sabé’s and Padmé’s fascination with the young Jedi Bendu, to be perfectly honest, an even greater part of her is glad to take him up on that offer of sanctuary on Alderaan _at once_ (and not just because it will be easier to sell her and her beloved deaths in the battle to retake Theed the more quickly they can get safely away from Theed), even if it means that she and Tyché are going to have to leave their names and old lives entirely behind to start anew at the Crown Prince’s court, if only because it means that it will get the two of them safely on a ship and away from Theed before anything else can possibly happen that might finally push the poor young man past his limits and cause him to lose the last of his control, as she is entirely sure (in a way she has been of few things or people in her life, aside from Tyché) that, if that young Jedi Bendu were to ever completely lose control, a shattered planet or two would be the absolute _least_ of the galaxy’s worries (a certainty that, quite possibly, makes her gladder of the young man’s offer patronage and friendship than she ever has been of anything in her life, aside from the eventual confirmation of that surety of Tyché)!

**Author's Note:**

>  **Clafication Note:** **1.)** I have no idea how I managed to do this, y'all (though I rather suspect that, after having written character study pieces for first Lietté Gaillen and Roché Jodelle and then Essé Seltrin and Rosé Ganesa and then finally poor Tillé Levesin and Maitané Aldona that my brain just balked and refused to write anything else about war crimes or collaborators), but apparently Anakin Skywalker isn't the only one who can't count, when it comes to handmaidens, because somehow or another, back in 2007, when I was working on my first batch of character study sketches for my handmaidens, I managed to skip two girls entirely from the first class. I never even noticed it until I went to post the character study sketches here and I couldn't figure out why, given ten girls each in three different classes for a total of thirty girls, minus the canon handmaidens (Sabé, Rabé, Eirtaé, Yané, Saché, and Dormé), I kept coming up with twenty-two instead of twenty-four character study sketches that needed posting. So . . . I went and wrote character study pieces for the two missing girls, who, as it turns out, weren't quite collaborators at all . . . and who are still alive on Alderaan somewhere (a fact that I shall have to address at some point in a future story, I'm sure) . . . **2.)** Readers should probably keep in mind that one of the reasons why my AU **Star Wars** series _**You Became to Me**_ is so entirely not even nearly complete has to do with the fact that I really started writing at the wrong end of the prequel trilogy for an AU (in my defense, though, when I started what became my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, which is over a million words long, I thought I was doing a sort of one-shot fix-it based on an idea I got for "fixing" RotS by changing something that happens very near the end of James Luceno's EU novel _Labyrinth of Evil_ , which is set immediately prior to RotS). One of these days, I fully intend to rectify that problem by going back and starting from the beginning, with an AU rewrite of TPM, which is why I took the time to do a character study sketch for a supporting character like Acharé. She'll be showing up again, in a more prominent role, whenever I get around to that AU rewrite of TPM. Folks might want to keep that in mind when reading this, since technically this is spoilerish for an AU novel that I haven't gotten around to writing yet!


End file.
